The "8 1/2 x 11 News" is published each week by the Department of Public
Relations. News of campus interest should be sent to
Ed Delaney,
412-268-1609 (ed47@andrew.cmu.edu) or Bruce Gerson, 412-268-1613 (bg02@andrew.cmu.edu). The
newsletter is available on the official.cmu-news and cmu.misc.news
bulletin boards.

An interdisciplinary Carnegie Mellon research team‹David Dzombak, Mitchell Small, and Jeanne VanBriesen of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Edwin Minkley of Biomedical and Health Engineering, and William Brown of Biology‹has been awarded $1,000,000 over three years by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for study of the ³Effects of Sediment Biogeochemistry on the Environmental Fate and Persistence of Polychlorinated Biphenyls.² The grant is one of 10 made in 2001 by the Packard Interdisciplinary Science Program, which encompasses all areas of science. Proposals were solicited from 51 institutions.

REPAIRS CAUSE WARNER HALL 6TH FLOOR STAFF TO RELOCATE

The Warner Hall 6th floor staff have been temporarily relocated while repairs and renovations are made on the floor and to the superstructure of the building. The relocations, which will be in effect until the end of the fall semester, are as follows:

Vice President for Business Planning Jeff Bolton to Facilities Management Services Building 334.

Vice President for Enrollment William Elliott to Warner Hall 215.

Vice President for University Advancement Robbee Baker Kosak to Warner Hall 500A and Associate Vice President for Marketing and Media Relations Kyle Fisher Morabito to Warner Hall 500B.

LIBRARY RECEIVES GRANT FOR HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY BOOKS

The University Libraries have announced receipt of a grant from the Mary Hillman Jennings Foundation. The grant, payable over two years, will be used to purchase books, reference materials and electronic resources in history and anthropology. The foundation¹s generosity will strengthen a deficient undergraduate library collection and help support Carnegie Mellon's nationally known History Department and its programs.

NEWS BRIEFS

Staff Council is offering an American Heart Association CPR class that will introduce you to the basic concepts of recognizing and beginning to treat heart attack, cardiac arrest, stroke and choking in adults. (The course does not cover treatment of children.) Participants will receive a booklet and course completion card. (The card is not a certifying credential as may be required by some employers.) Class times are: 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. or 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., Rangos 1 and 2, Oct. 25. Each class is limited to 30 students. Register through Learning and Development: http://www.cmu.edu/learning-programs.

Family Weekend 2001 is Oct. 5 - 7. Visit the Carnegie Mellon Home Page and click the Family Weekend button for more information. If your department or organization is having an event on campus during this time, contact Anne Witchner, assistant dean of student affairs, to see if it might be included in the Family Weekend Schedule. Contact Witchner at aw0w@andrew or x8-4886 by Sept. 12.

The Sept. 6 issue of the Carnegie Mellon News is being delivered to the mailboxes of all faculty and staff. It is also available on the Web at www.cmu.edu/cmnews/index.html. Contents include: "New Study Says Internet Use Less Depressing, but Stressful," "Diversity Recruiting Initiative Aims to Expand Pool of Minorty Students," "Robots Success Could Lead to Future Solar-Powered Exploration of Planets" and "New Deans Appointed in MCS, GSIA."

PERSONAL MENTION

The United States Institute for Theatre Technology has honored W. Oren Parker, professor of drama, emeritus, with the establishment of the W. Oren Parker Award for Scene Design for young designers and technicians in the performing arts. Parker is considered one of the outstanding leaders in the training of scene designers. His 1963 book, "Scene Design and Stage Lighting," revised through seven editions, is considered a classic on which a wide range of teachers and students rely.

The NEC Research Institute quantification program, Citeceer, lists Computer Science Department Head Randy Bryant's 1986 paper "Graph-Based Algorithms for Boolean Function Manipulation" as the most heavily cited work among the 400,000 documents in the NECI Scientific Literature Digital Library collection, ResearchIndex, as of April 2001. Cited 998 times, Bryant's paper originally appeared in the Proceedings of the 27th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference.

Matthew T. Mason, professor of computer science and robotics, is the author of the book, "Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation," published by MIT Press in August. The book focuses on the processes involved in moving objects around, such as grasping, carrying, pushing and dropping. Mason said that although there are other books on the subject, his focuses on manipulation rather than on manipulators. Mason¹s research interests include robotic manipulation, automated manufacturing systems and mobile manipulation. "Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation" is Mason¹s third book. He is co-author of "Robot Hands and the Mechanics of Manipulation" and co-editor of "Robot Motion: Planning and Control."

CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, Sept. 7: Seminar. "Information Generation for Product Development, Manufacturing and Competitive Position." Søren Bisgaard, professor of business and industrial statistics, University of Amsterdam. 2:45 p.m., Scaife Hall 125. An overview of the role of statistical methods as applied to manufacturing and product design. Implications for engineering education will also be discussed. Light refreshments to follow.

Saturday, Sept. 8: Football home game against Case Western Reserve. 1 p.m., Gesling Stadium. Faculty, staff and students are admitted free with a valid Carnegie Mellon ID.

Monday, Sept. 10: "Art and a Democratic Society." John Frohnmayer, former chair of the NEA, ethicist and lawyer. 4:30 p.m., Adamson Wing.

Tuesday, Sept. 11: Graduate Student Seminar Series. "Honest Advice on What Really Counts in Graduate School." Noon- 1:30 p.m. Rangos 3, University Center. Professors Roberta Klatzky, head of Psychology, and Peter Lee, associate dean for undergraduate programs, School of Computer Science, will share their insights on how to survive while pursuing a graduate degree. Register at http://www.cmu.edu/adm/apaa/gpo/graduates/GSSS.html.

Sept. 20-21: The first Carnegie Mellon Workshop on Interdisciplinary Nanotechnology (http://www.cinr.org). Roberts Engineering Hall. Features the work and vision of many Carnegie Mellon researchers on topics ranging from computation and electronics, magnetics and data storage, nanotechnology building blocks, and sensors and bio/medical applications. Further information is posted on official.cmu-news, Aug. 29. Admission is free but registration is required. Contact Debbie Cavlovich, 412-268-4750, or send email to winr@cinr.org.